Grand Romance

Writings about New York’s celebrated Hudson River School—the nineteenth-century pioneers of American landscape painting that reached its heyday in the mid 1800’s—rarely mention the female contingent that painted alongside such famous male practitioners as Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, and Frederic Church. Now, for the first time, an exhibition opening Sunday at the Thomas Cole historic site in Catskill, New York, will focus exclusively on the women of the movement, including Julie Hart Beers and Susie M. Barstow. Often wives or relatives of the men,these women climbed mountain peaks and despite their tight corsets, heels, and thick petticoats, they strove to capture the expansive, romantic views that characterize the school’s aesthetic. The women, says the exhibition’s co-curator Jennifer Krieger, “tackled the new subject matter that they were bringing forward as well, and with parallel skill, as their male colleagues.” So why were they forgotten, despite receving support from some of the men they painted alongside? “They had to contend with the biases of the time: Many men just didn’t believe that the women were physically able to be talented artists,” says Krieger. “The works really haven’t been researched or exposed to the public. It is a story that hasn’t been told before.”

“Remember the Ladies: Women of the Hudson River School,” curated by Nancy Siegel and Jennifer Krieger, runs from May 2 through October 31 at the home of Thomas Cole, 218 Spring Street, Catskill, New York.

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Writings about New York’s celebrated Hudson River School—the nineteenth-century pioneers of American landscape painting that reached its heyday in the mid 1800's—rarely mention the female contingent that painted alongside such famous male practitioners as Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, and Frederic Church. Now, for the first time, an exhibition opening Sunday at the Thomas Cole historic site in Catskill, New York, will focus exclusively on the women of the movement, including Julie Hart Beers and Susie M. Barstow. Often wives or relatives of the men,these women climbed mountain peaks and despite their tight corsets, heels, and thick petticoats, they strove to capture the expansive, romantic views that characterize the school’s aesthetic. The women, says the exhibition’s co-curator Jennifer Krieger, “tackled the new subject matter that they were bringing forward as well, and with parallel skill, as their male colleagues.” So why were they forgotten, despite receving support from some of the men they painted alongside? “They had to contend with the biases of the time: Many men just didn’t believe that the women were physically able to be talented artists,” says Krieger. "The works really haven’t been researched or exposed to the public. It is a story that hasn’t been told before.”

“Remember the Ladies: Women of the Hudson River School,” curated by Nancy Siegel and Jennifer Krieger, runs from May 2 through October 31 at the home of Thomas Cole, 218 Spring Street, Catskill, New York. [gallery]